The finals of the WorldSkills butchery competition took place last week, with six of the nation’s butchers battling it out to be crowned better than the rest.
The six finalists included Hannah Blakey, a 17-year-old apprentice at Leeds City College; Peter Rushforth of Swans Farm Shop in Mold, Wales; James Gracey of Quails of Dromore in Co Down, Northern Ireland; Dylan Gillespie from Clogher Valley Meats in Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland; Martin Naan from Kettyle Irish Foods in Co Fermanagh, Northern Ireland and Daniel Turley of Aubrey Allen, Coventry.
Together they were the six highest scorers across heats in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The final, which took place from 17th to 18th November at the NEC in Birmingham, saw the competitors perform five tasks over two days. They were judged by National Federation of Meat and Food Traders (NFMFT) chief executive Roger Kelsey, industry consultant Viv Harvey and chief executive of the Institute of Meat, Keith Fisher.
After a long two days, Peter of Swans Farm Shop in Wales took home the gold. Peter is also an apprentice with Cambrian Training.
A spokesperson for the shop took to Twitter to say: “Congratulations to this wonderful young man, an incredible fortnight, couldn't be prouder.
“Still speechless, can't wait till Peter's home so we can all celebrate in the Farm Shop.”
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
